Sodium battery

An exciting candidate when it comes to alternative battery chemistries is sodium-ion, and a research team in Russia has developed a novel battery of this ilk that boasts some impressive energy density, and may also be resistant to low temperatures.

Natron's sodium-ion batteries have an enormous cycle life, practical power density, excellent safety and super-fast charging, without using any lithium. Through a partnership with Clarios, they'll go into mass manufacture in Michigan next year.

Needle-like growths called dendrites form on the electrode to hamper the performance of many promising experimental batteries, but a team at the University of Texas at Austin are putting forward a solution for a particularly eco-friendly one.

Graphene is already shaping the future of battery technology in some interesting ways, and now scientists have deployed a novel form of the wonder material in a sustainable sodium battery to bring about a tenfold increase in capacity.

Leveraging salt could help us avoid much of the cost and difficulty in sourcing scarcer lithium, and Chinese giant CATL is looking to lead the charge by launching its first commercial sodium-ion battery.

A new design out of Washington University in St Louis demonstrates a promising path forward for sodium batteries, with the team producing a device that is smaller and less expensive than lithium batteries, without compromising on performance.

A research team in Russia has discovered a new bright, blue mineral they say could solve one of the problems with sodium-ion batteries, which shape as a far more cost-effective form of energy storage than today's solutions.

Researchers claim to have developed a new battery that mixes the best of both liquid and solid batteries. The new design is the first all-liquid-metal battery that can operate at room temperature, and it apparently outperforms lithium-ion batteries.

Scientists at Washington State University have come up with a new design for a sodium-ion battery that offers comparable energy capacity and cycling ability to some lithium-ion batteries already on the market.

An innovative new method of drawing direct electrochemical energy from seawater means underwater robots, vehicles and detectors could go deeper and longer into the unknown.

While experimental sodium-ion batteries continue to show promise, there are a few kinks to be ironed out before we see them become commonplace. Researchers at Purdue University are claiming to have overcome one important shortcoming by first reducing the sodium to a powder form. ​

Striking a balance between common materials and efficiency is important for batteries, and regular old salt looks like it could fit the bill – after a few kinks are ironed out. Now, KAUST researchers have developed a way to make disordered graphene that can improve the sodium-ion battery recipe.